Paint sheen is the thing most people get wrong, and it is the thing you live with every day. The colour is a matter of taste. The sheen decides whether the wall wipes clean or holds a grey smear by the light switch forever.
The five sheens, in one line each
- Flat / matte. No shine at all. Hides every bump and patch in the drywall. Hard to clean, so it belongs on ceilings and in low-traffic rooms.
- Eggshell. A whisper of sheen. The standard for living rooms, bedrooms and hallways in most Winnipeg houses. Wipes reasonably well, still forgiving on imperfect walls.
- Satin. Noticeably smoother and more washable. The right answer for kitchens, bathrooms, laundry rooms and kids’ rooms.
- Semi-gloss. Shiny and tough. Trim, baseboards, doors, and sometimes a shower-adjacent wall.
- High gloss. Very shiny, very unforgiving. Rare inside a house apart from feature details and some cabinetry.
Kitchens
Satin on the walls. Cooking throws grease further than people think, and satin takes a cloth without burnishing. Use semi-gloss on trim and doors so the surfaces that get touched can actually be scrubbed. Ceilings stay flat, unless the kitchen is small and poorly ventilated, in which case a kitchen-and-bath ceiling paint is worth the extra few dollars.
Bathrooms
Satin as the default, semi-gloss if the room has no window and no decent fan. Buy a paint sold specifically for kitchens and bathrooms: the mildew resistance in the formula matters more here than the sheen label on the can.
While you are in there, check where the exhaust fan actually vents. In a lot of older Winnipeg houses it vents into the attic, which means the moisture you are trying to remove is being deposited above your insulation all winter. No paint fixes that.
Basements
Eggshell on walls, flat on ceilings, satin anywhere near a laundry sink or a bathroom. If the basement has any history of moisture, deal with the moisture first. Paint over a damp wall is a receipt you throw away twice.
Three things that matter more than the brand
- Primer on new drywall. Fresh drywall and joint compound soak up paint at different rates. Skip the primer and you will see every taped seam through two coats of finish.
- Two coats, properly. One thick coat is not two coats. It sags, it dries unevenly, and the colour shifts across the wall.
- Temperature. Paint does not cure properly below about 10°C. In a Winnipeg winter that rules out an unheated garage or a basement with the windows open.
How much will you need?
A gallon covers roughly 350 square feet per coat. Our paint calculator works it out from your room dimensions and subtracts the doors and windows.
If you would rather not spend the weekend cutting in around the ceiling, we paint too.